updated 11:00 pm EST, Tue December 10, 2013

Deal good for 16GB models only, iPads also available with zero down

America's fourth-largest carrier, T-Mobile, has announced a holiday season special that allows buyers to sign up for a 16GB iPhone 5s or 5c with no down payment for a limited time. The up-front costs of the iPhones were previously $149 for the 5s and $49 for the 5c. T-Mobile suspended down payments previously over the Black Friday event, but resumed charging the down payments afterwards. The suspension of down payments applies to "well-qualified new and existing customers," the company says.

The promotion begins on Wednesday and is likely to run through Christmas if not New Years, though T-Mobile hasn't announced an official end date. The offer only applies to the 16GB models of each iPhone, and also to 16GB models of the cellular-enabled iPad Air, first-gen iPad mini and Retina iPad mini. All require 24 equal monthly payments and a Simple Choice plan, which start at $50 per month (but offer unlimited talk, text, and web -- and at least 500MB of data).

The monthly payment on an iPhone 5s would be $27 per month for 24 months, while the iPhone 5c costs $22.91 for the same period, meaning a minimum commitment for an iPhone 5c would cost $72.91 per month ($1,750 over the 24-month term total) but with no up-front cost during the promotion. The monthly payments for iPads run between $17.91 and $26.25 depending on the model. All plans include unlimited text and data in over 100 countries as well.

Existing iPhone customers can utilize the existing upgrade Jump program to upgrade older phones to the iPhone during the promotion. Without the contract, the iPhone models are available at the same price as on Apple's site, $649 and $549 respectively.